License Renewed – John Gardner, 1981 ★★½

007 Greets the 1980s

I remember my excitement seeing the blurb in Time magazine back in 1981. Glidrose Publications, Ltd., owners of the literary copyright of the world's most famous fictional spy, had granted permission for a brand-new series of James Bond novels.

But was James Bond ready for the eighties? John Gardner's initial updating of 007 kinda, sorta, sometimes works.

The story, after some preliminaries to show us Bond at home in what was then a new decade, sets the lethal British spy against a tricky Scottish laird with a sideline in nuclear fission. There's not much doubt Dr. Anton Murik is up to no good; Gardner presents him right away as Bond's main adversary.

"Government agencies have tried, again and again, to muzzle people like me," Murik tells Bond in one early conversation. "Now they deserve a lesson."

License Renewed was published in early 1981, after Roger Moore had reshaped if not de-Seaned how the character of James Bond was seen by his global audience. It's fair to say Moore's Bond is more visible here than Fleming's. Unlike the literary Bond Ian Fleming developed in the 1950s and 1960s, and more like Moore, this Bond is heavy on the wisecracks and getting busy with the ladies, even when locked in a cell with one. Readers of the Fleming books accustomed to Bond's bleak moments of existential angst over the emotional toll his job exacts will be surprised at the unclouded temperament of this newer 007.

For me, this different handling of the Bond character was far more fascinating than the threadbare story. Gardner pushes technology to the forefront, like in a seduction scene where one of Bond's new lovers employs an erotic hologram to set the mood. Our 1981 model Bond drives a SAAB, drinks Perrier, and jogs before missions. Instead of bantering with his armorer, Bond sleeps with her. His license to kill is suspended by the government as a matter of national policy coming more in line with humanitarian concerns, but his old boss M makes clear he wants Bond as lethal as ever, hence the novel's title.

"There are moments when this country needs a troubleshooter - a blunt instrument - and by heaven it's going to have one," says M, who is at least as gruff as ever.

Rating License Renewed as spy fiction is tough; I found it on the whole not very gripping. While Gardner has Bond meet Murik and his two main companions - beautiful women, both, as if they could have been anything else - at a posh horse race, there's little mystery to plum other than which of the ladies will sleep with Bond first. Murik, as quoted above, basically lays his plot out for Bond and the readers; the challenge becomes whether Bond can alert his superiors to the details of the threat.

This is where Gardner gets a bit too cute. Bond has a device to signal for immediate help, so naturally loses it at a critical moment. When he goes to a phone booth, one of Murik's henchmen happens upon him just as he is about to make contact. Bond's on his own as he should be, but mainly from his own incompetence. Bond's entire strategy seems to involve being captured and told by the villain what he is planning, then making a sudden, miraculous escape or two. Someone no doubt will point out this was all-too-often Fleming's plotting formula, too; however Gardner seems to work it a little more mechanically here than Fleming usually did.

John Gardner in front of a portrait of James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, circa 1981. Photo from the James Bond International Fan Club @ www.007.info.

Pluses of License Renewed include Gardner's facility with the subtleties of Bond's character. His Bond is as enjoyably fetishistic about his pleasures and hidebound in his worldview as Fleming wrote him. Like Fleming, Gardner takes some engaging descriptive detours, especially when writing about the southern French city of Perpignan, where Bond finds himself on the run. I actually happened to read License Renewed for the first time while staying with a Spanish family in Catalonia, soon after a day trip across the French border to Perpignan. Imagine my surprise to find Bond dodging villains in the same plaza where I had just attempted to mail some postcards.

At times during this part of the story, the book’s highlight along with the horse race, you recall that famous "Fleming Sweep," where action, real suspense, and description blend masterfully together. Gardner clearly walked these French streets as I had, describing every one of Bond's maneuvers with unflinching exactitude, along with the merry-making of the city's population as they take part in a municipal fair. There's that same tactile quality that Fleming gave you of life being lived at its peak by someone in danger of losing his at any time.

But the story peters out fast after that. You know that Dr. Evil line about never just shooting the hero when you can lecture him instead about the nuances of your diabolical plot? Well, in this case the villain even arranges for Bond to have a literal ringside seat. I got the feeling here, and in a couple of other spots, that Gardner's tongue here was firmly in his cheek. He probably knew what by then had become the usual knocks on Fleming's Bond.

This is better than a couple of Bonds Fleming wrote, namely Doctor No and The Man With The Golden Gun. The update is fun, and Bond is at least reintroduced effectively. The weaknesses are there, and strong enough at times, especially in the wrap-up, to cancel some of the good feelings, but License Renewed has its pleasures, and like the Fleming Bonds, serves as an entertaining time capsule all its own.